Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-08-03
CREMATION IN ALASKA.
Curious Customs that Follow Death
Why the Bodies Burn Well

SuSLOI1S LHaC ACotAA
why the Bodies Burn Well.
Having had information the other day Of 6
cremation to take place at the Indian village
went to the beach to witness it. The de
funct siwas was known around juneau al
Frank, and was formerly employed at Mar
tin Bros store in the capacity of Indian clerk
| and the hickman (it being double crema
ton of one of each SEX had been called
Jennie, both, as it happened, having died Of
consumption. The mourning service con-
sisted of the ancient ceremony known a
@potlatch," which is always customary among
the Indians of southeastern Alaska on the oc-
casion of a death of one of their number.
The potlatch is division Of whatever tenn
poral goods the deceased may have possessed,
such as blankets, dry goods, etc, among his
or her relations, according as the merits of
each individual case may justify.
In the services Of the mourning, which are
very long, and to the Indian mind very i'm
pressive, the first in the order of the day is a
eulogistic discourse by one of the old men,
which, being delivered by him in sections, so
to speak, is taken up and sung by the rest in
monotonous sort Of chant; the old man is
then SUPERSEDED by another venerable buck,
who goes through the same service, and he in
turn by another, until all the old men have
had their individual say. The chanters keep
time by humping the floor with sticks and
beating on a drum. This performance being
gone over for day or two. the potlatch takes
place.
The body of the deceased is first wrapped
in mating woven from split roots and in
appearance resembling coarse straw. They
then convey the body to the place of crema-
ton, which is always on the beach at high
water mark. On this occasion they had on
hand for the purpose Of burning the two
bodies about one cord of wood, some split and
some in small logs. First platform of small
logs is laid a foot from the ground, with a
space of four inches between each log. On
this pyre. which was about seven feet long by
five feet wide, the two bodies were placed
about three feet apart, and around them a
miniature log hut was built to a height of
four feet; the inclosed space is then carefully
filed in with split wood and fine kindling,
and now, everything being in readiness, the
fire is lighted from the bottom. The native
diet being chiefly salmon, on oily substance,
the bodies of the Indians seem to contain q
considerable amount of oil, as they burn very
readily. While the corpses were charming,
Jllt lTltiIllS u lLt ucCcdocU COUIiuucu W pOhc
them with long sticks, occasionally raking
the fragments Of burnt flesh from the fire
and wrapping them in skins, blankets, etc.
Returning from the cremation of the two
natives, heard singing in native house, and
dropped in to see what was going on.
There was quite an essemblage of natives
squatted around a small fire in the center of
the room, and at one end of the house the
corpse of an old woman lay, covered with
sheets and blankets. All around the room
was strung up muslin, pieces Of calico and a
few blankets; also, three umbrellas, etc., all
of which will be distributed among the rela-
tives and near friends Then the process de-
scribed above will be gone through.-Alaska
- D--ss
Attorney General GarIand's Luck.
"How on earth did such bright fellow as
Garland come to live at such place as HON.
my Hill?n asked an admirer of the attorney
general of an Arkansas traveller the other
day. ats as bad as Podunk, Kalamazoo,
Kokomo, Oshkosh, or Chatham Four Corn
ers"
an tell you," said the other. "Hominy
Hill is not, as everybody supposes, a town.
It's an old time sacred name given the farm
Garland owns near Little Rock Garland
gets his mail at Little Rock, and is for all
practical purposes resident of that place.
They worship him there. There is queer
story of how he happened to settle at that
place. He was living in Washington, little,
place, where his parents settled,
when he was admitted to the bar. 1t was no
place for rising lawyer. One day he aston
ished his office chum by asking him to tie a
handkerchief around his ewes His friend
Garland took pencil in his hand,
stepped up to map of the state, whirled his
hand around three times and jabbed the
pencil at the map. There, said the young
lawyer, unite this hard knot and I'll tell you
what | am doing. I'm sick of this town.
I'm going to move to where my pencil struck
the map. If it's town, I'll practice law; if
it's country, I'll farm it; if it's river, I'll 60 to
steamboating' The pencil had struck Little
Rock, and there he went. A. H. Garland
has been just as fateful and just as lucky as
that all his life New York Sun.